


Justin Long: Continued Adventures of The American Dragon

by orphan_account



Category: American Dragon: Jake Long
Genre: Blood and Violence, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Explicit Language, Fantasy, Future Fic, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Magic, Post-Canon, Rated For Violence, Series, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-02-19 00:50:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22869229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Set twenty to thirty years after the end of the original series, and exploring concepts such as grief, loss, and dealing with disappointment, follow the adventures of Justin Long, as life decides to take him for a bit of a ride.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

Jake felt his son pulling him, not forward, but down, most parents of a five year old will report that they don't care how high your hand is off the ground they want you to support them, even if you have to bend like a palm tree to keep on level with them; as was the case with little Justin, it was his first outing of the summer and Jake was genuinely excited, as the hot New York air blew across his face and the honking of traffic blared in the distance all he could think was how now that his son could walk, he could actually take him out to the park and he might do something more than sit on Jake's shoulders. Which was fine. But, he was looking forward to so much, to his kid running through the soccer filed, getting interested in physical hobbies, whatever they wound up being. As he looked down at the deep blue bucket hat his son wore, he couldn't wait to see what he'd do.

Half an hour later his son would have a bloody nose.

A scraped knee.

And dirt in his teeth.

But he would be smiling. And he wasn't so badly off, you should've seen the other kid.

* * *

"Grandpa!" Justin shouted as he jumped on Lao Shi, the old man patted the small child on the head, as many times as he tried to explain that he was his great grandfather, the little boy insisted on calling him Grandpa--he wasn't complaining though, unlike his actual grandson, this one said it in Cantonese and he was willing to let it slide; though it did not escape his notice that his great grandson was somewhat...messier than he was accustomed to.

"What did you get up to little one?" he asked in Cantonese

"I broke someone's nose!" he excitedly replied in kind, though his Cantonese was beginning to develop an American accent... _no, wait priorities_ , Lao Shi thought, before asking

"When you say you broke someone's nose...what do you mean?"

The boy backed up from him for a minute and took a fighting stance he'd taught him a few weeks ago, then in rapid succession he began aiming clumsy but promising punches into the air. He smiled brightly before simply saying:

"He didn't even see it coming"

Lao Shi smiled at this, the little boy was already growing on him, unlike his father he seemed to be taking his martial arts seriously, though part of him wondered why they'd come over to his house, it wasn't a weekday, they didn't need a babysitter, and that bleeding nose, _why didn't Jake take him home?_

"Yeah" Jake said, leaning against the doorway, trying to look an ominous five foot seven "He'd didn't see it coming"

 _Oh great_ , _Is my Grandson about to lecture me?_ Lao Shi congratulated his little warrior and showed him to the back garden he'd been cultivating for the past few years, where the boy happily resumed his forms, stances and punches among boxes of radishes, bok-choy, watercress, and green onions among the lattice-work mazes interrupted only the grey concrete baking in the hot New York sun, then he turned to face his grandson. _He needs to shave more_ , he thought, looking up at the man who had once been a child he knew.

"Where did he learn to do that?" Jake asked.

"Here. I taught him" _Getting right to the point, I see_.

"Why?"

"He's going to need to learn at some point"

"He's gonna need to know how to break noses?" Jake crossed his arms. 

"Maybe, you never know, there are some strange things we face in our line of work. Perhaps there is a demonic nose he'll need to face one day. You never know."

"We don't know that this will be his life" _This argument again...?_

"You, became the American dragon despite your meat headed mortal father's DNA, you think we only married other Dragons before this? Because we didn't and yet..."

Jake sighed, pinching the bridge between his eyes "you haven't been telling him about any of this have you?"

"I'M GONNA BE THE AMERICAN DRAGON!!!" Justin shouted as he attempted a back flip and landed face first in a patch of Tomato plants. Lao shi awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

"I might have mentioned it"

Jake heaved an exhale out his nostrils and pulled his son out of the Tomato patch, despite him protesting that he "totally mean to do that" and that he "was just fine" that he did this all in Cantonese only amused Lao shi more.

* * *

Rose was making dinner when Jake walked in, though once she saw her son, with mud all over and dry blood crusting the front of his face she quickly abandoned the take out menu and rushed to the foyer. Her hands went right to his face as she quietly asked her husband what exactly happened?

"You should see the other kid" he son replied in Cantonese, Rose felt her eyebrows shoot up, she looked up from her son's alarmingly bright face to her husband's more measured side eye, it wasn't aimed at her, rather it seemed aimed east of the house.

"My Grandpa apparently taught him how to fight"

"So...he won?" she asked, trying to suppress the perverse sense of maternal pride she now felt for her little boy.

"yeah, he knocked the other kid out" _Don't feel Proud. Don't feel Proud. Don't feel Proud_ , she thought as she led her boy by the hand to the kitchen.

She pulled out a clean blue dish towel, ran it beneath some warm water and gently dabbed at the reddish brown mess that was her son's face. Once she got all the dirt off the surface she saw the little boy she'd spent so much time learning to love, ever since she first held him to her chest, to right now, she'd spent all her time finding new things to love about this tiny human she'd brought into the world; did he look like her? No, his facial features and hair stuck much more closely to the Long side of the family, he had their ebony black hair, deep brown eyes and faintly tanned skin, she sometimes wondered if this was what Jake had looked like as a child. But despite all the obvious differences there was no denying that he was her son.

She picked up the take out menu off the floor.

"Feel like pizza?" she asked in Cantonese.

"What kind?" he asked back. 

"Any kind you like" _Fuck it, I'm Proud_ , she thought as she showed him the menu filled up with Cantonese words for different toppings and crust qualities.

* * *

"Grandpa!" Justin shouted, "I got my Green belt" he said, waving the little green canvas in his seven year old hand. Jake took a long exhale, after a year long period of trying to get his child not to punch people he'd thrown in the towel, and decided to enroll him somewhere he was allowed to punch people, the only thing that unnerved him was how fast Rose pulled out a pamphlet for a martial arts school. Like she'd had it ready.

He was proud. His son was accomplishing things, he was happy, but he still barely spoke English, despite having two English-speaking parents...at least he assumed Rose spoke English around their son, she had grown up in Hong Kong thanks to that reset button he'd hit back in middle school... _maybe I should get him a tutor_. 

* * *

"What's it like to fly?" Justin asked his father in English, it had taken five years of tutors in addition to English classes in school, but now he could speak English passably, he'd even made a friend, that he made the friend in one of his Martial arts classes was fine by Jake, the kid in question was one Peter Tung, still a green belt, but he actually kept up with the world around him, maybe he could introduce his son to life outside punching and school.

"What?"

"Flying? What's it like?"

"You mean on a plane?" Jake asked, they were alone in the house, but part of him didn't want to get his son's hopes up. He'd hoped his grandfather's stories would have faded into a forgotten childhood dream bu now, but he suspected that the old man had kept a steady stream going. 

"You know what I mean"

 _Alright, mom said not to shoot him down, but she never said to make it sound fun_ :

"It's hard, you know?" he started, trying not to think of the exhilaration, the G-force, all things he couldn't deny, he kind of wanted his son to experience one day "You're um, you're col--"

"I though dragons could generate their own heat?" _Goddamit._

"Okay, not cold, but bugs just fly--"

"Into your mouth, that generates acid for that purpose?" 

"Um..."

"Dad. I'm gonna be thirteen in a few months. I wanna know what I'm in for."

_Well, what's the harm?_

"It's awesome..."

* * *

Lao Shi had never looked smaller, Jake had never seen him surrounded by so much, the machines, the tubes, the beeping and pulsating mechanisms, all of it telling them with every beep and blip that they were running out of time, his mother was trying not to cry, his father was holding her shoulder for when she finally had to, Fu dog was hidden in her purse, the hospital didn't allow pets; Rose had one hand on their son's shoulder, he looked like he was about to burst. Lao Shi kept whispering little things in Chinese that Jake couldn't hope to understand. The nurse had started the drip now. He was going.

And just like that. 

The line went flat, a red string pulled taunt.

"Thanks for sixty years Dad" his mother tearfully said, hand on her father's left foot.

Justin didn't say anything. Not when everyone else was crying. Not when the nurse walked in between the crying Longs to methodically, coldly, move the machines, and initial the certificate of death. And not at the funeral. 

* * *

A week later Justin turned thirteen, he didn't want a cake, but he did want to go to a restaurant, an old place, dingy, but good food, he ordered more than he should have, took the white Styrofoam out to the graveyard where Lao Shi's memorial plate stood, he dumped the food out on to his grave, Jake and Rose watched from the front of their car, as their now teenage son stood out in the rain in good blue clothes dumping out a meal for his grandfather. 

It did not escape either of them that they hadn't heard a growl, seen a flash of fire, nor heard anything out of the ordinary all day, despite holding him back from school that for that purpose.

Nor would they hear anything out of the ordinary that night.

Or the next.

Or ever.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark forces stir, new evils arise and Justin is not handling things great...
> 
> As his career as a student continues he continues to not handle his lot in life with proper grace.

Justin was drinking ginseng tea on the roof with his mother. The hot liquid cut through the cool dew of the early morning, the sun rose and caught the shine on the clay cups they drank out of, his mother heaved a sigh, barely audible over the New York morning traffic, the wooden sparring tools leaned against a brick tower topped off with the building's satellite disks, as Justin took another sip he looked over at the skyline of Manhattan and tried to imagine what drew people there. Maybe being within driving distance of the island had drained out the magic of the Statue of Liberty, or the potential to walk to Broadway,but whatever the case, Justin just didn't see the appeal of the messy concrete pile. 

He turned his eyes back to the sparring tools, here was something he understood, placing his cup on the bamboo tray he got up, his feet crunching against the gravel, picking up one of the swords he did a few reflexive twirls and the world fell away. The twirling of the blade became a simple movement of muscles against air and varnished wood, at first it had been difficult, when he'd started out he'd had no idea how to apply principles of balance and center to a foreign object, but with time it came to him. And now here he was, spinning the blade between his fingers like a pen.

_Clack._

He felt the contact of his blade hitting his mother's with enough time to duck out of the way as her blade ran up the length of his and took aim for his head, he in turn, aimed a sharp kick for her shins, she jumped into the air, tucking both legs under herself, extending them back to where his head sat, he rolled out and assumed a stance on the other side of the roof, gravel dusting off of his skin like snow, she charged at him, he braced, she launched herself up, he adjusted to match the angle, and she dropped down early. The point of her sword was under his chin in under a minute. 

"What did we do wrong?" she asked in Cantonese

"Assumed" he replied in the same language

"As opposed to?"

"Adjusting"

With that she drew her sword back and walked back to the ledge where their tea sat, still steaming. _She didn't walk backwards_ , he thought, remembering her many lessons about keeping one's eyes on the enemy, lest they strike again.

He followed behind her, keeping a firm grip on his sword, she set hers down beside the ledge, took her seat and resumed her drink; he was tempted to strike, just for the element of surprise, but mostly he just wanted to have his morning tea with his mother. He set his blade down and picked up the smooth clay cup.

* * *

Justin climbed down the stairs to get back into the house, his gravel covered sweat clothes losing tiny pieces of rock with each step, his mother followed close behind, her black uniform much less damaged by their session. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, the big brand names running up and down the legs of his sweatpants might as well have been Greek for all they meant to him, part of him wanted to get rid of them, they were hole-filled, ragged at the cuffs and he wasn't entirely sure how these were meant to look, but he was fairly certain that any clothing that showed this much of a man's ankle was too small. His mother nudged him from behind and he moved on to his bedroom. 

Grabbing his backpack up off the floor Justin skated through the house, having left his sneakers on the roof for training, he slipped into a pair of those "fresh kicks" his father had insisted on buying him, and went out the front door. Once on the ground he couldn't avoid the noise, New York traffic was always bad, but it was easier to ignore it on a rooftop, down here it was loud, proud and in your face. 

"Hey Popstar where you been?"

 _Speak of the devil_ , Justin thought as the familiar face of Peter Tung swam up beside him. Along with the unfamiliar smells of hair product and Axe, Justin looked up to find Peter's normally shaggy mop of hair had been (ineptly) slicked back, and his usual blemishes appeared to be gone, although for some reason he also smelled an awful lot like talcum powder. 

"Okay, I give" Justin said "what-what are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Dude, your hair is greased--"

"It's gel, for style"

"uh-huh"

"Look it's the first day--"

"Of the second year of high school, yes"

"I just wanna make a good impression"

"By raiding your mother's Maybelline supply?"

"Is it that obvious?" Peter said, raising one hand to his cheek causing the aforementioned powder to shift onto the cuff of the leather jacket he was wearing, that was two sizes to small, and _wait..._

"Peter. Please tell me you're wearing a shirt under that." 

"uh..."

"Oh god"

"Well, why do you care?"

"I don't." Justin replied, pinching the bridge of his nose "I just-- _why_?"

"Maybe I wanna look good for a change" Peter said as he pulled the jacket down so it better covered his midriff, inadvertently staining the bottom hem of the leather in the process.

"Okay, but why _today_?" Justin asked, privately wondering when it would be appropriate to hand Peter some wet wipes to remedy his attempt at...whatever this was.

"Why do you care?"

"Because you're my _friend_?"

_And because I don't want you to get laughed at?_

Peter went silent at this, his head drooped and the two of them continued their walk in silence. Until they rounded the corner and Peter decided to open up.

"I had to sneak around my house at 5AM to get all this done" he muttered, his eyes gazing off into the middle distance "I knew my mom would just want me to dress... _nice_ , and my dad would've thrown me out the window if he knew about the concealer. I just wanted to do something different."

"And what" Justin asked "was the inspiration for this...makeover montage?"

"My dad left out some old rock and roll mags he had back in the 2000s..."

"Ok...starting to put all the pieces together"

"They just looked so cool!"

"Was that because of the outfits or because they were surrounded by women, and fancy cars, and drugs?"

"...I mean, they didn't have drugs in the photos..." Peter replied before face palming and further destroying the makeup job he'd applied. Justin reached into his backpack and pulled out a box of tissues and some rubbing alcohol. Peter generously applied them to his face and a scrub, a drying session, and several tissues later he started to look a little more human. 

"Better?" Peter asked.

"I mean you're still you...so...meh?"

"Shut up." Peter smirked "Any ideas about my hair?"

"There _are_ showers at school."

"I'm not showering at the school!"

"You don't even need to...wait, you don't shower at the school?"

"No."

"Then what do you do after gym?"

"Go to class, what do you do?"

"I get a shower so I don't stink!"

"Well good for you! I'd just rather not be naked in room _full_ of--"

"It's never _full_ , I'm the only one in there!"

"Wait" Peter said "No one's ever in there?"

"Nope" Justin replied

"Why not?" 

"Probably the same reason you never go in there."

"Hey, how fast do you think we can get to school?"

"Dude, I meant wash the gel out between periods--"

" I don't have that kind of time!" Peter shouted. Justin stopped.

"OK" Justin started "Why, and answer me honestly, is it so crucial that you look good, _today_?"

Peter kicked at the dirt for a few awkward seconds before muttering a few quick words under his breath. 

"I didn't quite catch that"

With a sigh Peter stuttered them out again, his face now beet red, Justin didn't hear him this time, but he also didn't press the issue. 

"Okay, rock star--"

"don't"

"Dude I have to"

Peter let out a heavy sigh.

"Okay, if we run for a few blocks we'll be in the building before anyone else. Sound good?"

Peter smiled.

* * *

Peter peered around the corner, his body pressed against the painted cinder blocks, Justin had told him that wasn't necessary, actually if anything the hair gel stains he was leaving on the walls were more telling then if they'd just walked to the boys locker room. Justin had given him a spare gym shirt from the fold of his backpack, which was helping with leather jacket situation, sort of. Justin waved at the janitor as he went out for a smoke break.

As they approached the room Peter made a series of rapid hand signals at Justin. 

"I speak two languages" Justin said "that was neither of them."

Peter groaned before firing off a quick "Just get in there and make sure it's empty!"

"You're just washing your hair in the sink and drying off under a hand dryer--"

"I don't care. check!"

"Why?"

"...people talk" Peter muttered, his eyes never meeting Justin's.

"Fine." Justin muttered, walking into the yellow tiled cave that smelled like sweat and urine, he observed the old wooden pallets on the sides of the open changing room, the lines of black hooks where boys were encouraged to NOT put their things, because the school didn't want to take responsibility for what got stolen, but they also didn't want to pay for lockers. The bending curves of the walls made every step Justin took a thunderclap. But no actual thunder came. _So why is there smoke coming out of the shower?_ Justin thought.

 _Walk away_ , he thought, _you don't have the equipment, you don't know what this thing is...and you're not the American Dragon. You have no reason to...why are you walking towards it?_ His legs moved deftly and quietly, as he swung himself up on to the wooden pallets, he crouched low, his center of gravity low, his arms to the wall, his eyes trailing across the yellow tiled walls, as another puff of perfumed smoke shot out of the showers. Then he swung himself around, whipped his body into motion until he landed with both feet on the ground between two steel shower head poles, right in front of five girls sitting around an ornate hookah.

"what?" he asked "Are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" asked a wide-eyed blonde girl as she tried to pass the pipe onto another.

"This is the boys locker room."

"Well, it's not gym class, why are you here?"

"It's not your business, why are you here?"

One of the girls swore in Mandarin, Justin set his eyes to her, she was wearing a schizophrenic combination of Japanese street wear, Korean accessories, and a Vietnamese dress, she sat atop a kick board to prevent her odd but clearly expensive assortment from dipping into the puddle of stale water and God-knew-what-else. She met his gaze. For the first time in his life, Justin felt threatened.

"What do you want?" she asked in English

"uh-um" _What is with this chick?_

"Shaoyen. There's no need to be rude." the blonde girl snapped. 

The girl, Shaoyen apparently, let out a sigh and ripped the pipe out of another girl's hands and proceeded to puff away.

"um, I kind of need this place to be empty for bit"

"Well tough shit were using it" Shaoyen muttered.

"Shaoyen!"

"What?" she replied, smoke trailing out of her nostrils.

"Look" the blonde girl started "maybe we can come to an agreement--"

"Okay, here's my agreement" Justin interjected "get out or I tell let the principal in on your Arabian Nights recreation, hmm?" 

The blonde girl took a minute, her eyes trailing between him and the door. Shaoyen meanwhile took one last long inhale from the pipe before walking over to a wall and unplugging it. 

"we keep it in the storage closet, wait for it to cool down" was all she said as she and the other girls got up and left, the blonde girl last of all.

* * *

"You're sure it looks okay?" Peter asked for the dozenth time that day.

"Well, it doesn't look like you tried to wax a floor with your head anymore, so yeah it's an improvement" Justin muttered as he shoveled fried rice into his mouth. 

"Sorry man, I was just..." Peter trailed off, his face reddening.

"It doesn't matter" Justin cut in.

"By the way what was that thing you put in the storage locker?"

"Not important"

"Okay... I feel like it is though" he replied, a slice of cheap pizza dangling from his mouth. 

They sat under the green shadows of a stunted tree in the school courtyard, the yells and shouts of their fellow students barely understandable over the din of traffic. Justin continued to shovel food into his mouth, cognizant of a thousand smells, tastes, and noises, chief in among them was the grainy noise of his father's radio show. Once upon a time the sound of his father talking in thick hip-hop slang, mixed in with random anecdotes, and celebrity interviews would have been a neutral noise to Justin. But, unfortunately people had a way of ruining things. 

Peter shotgunned a Diet Coke, let out a raucous burp and slouched against the wooden table they were sitting at. 

_It's such a nice day_ , Justin thought, his eyes drifted to the gaggle of women smoking just outside of school property. 

"Comin' up next" his father's voice boomed from one of the cars that happened to be passing by "we play our favorite game here at 105 'white people trippin' and to start us off let's hear that _8 mile_ soundtrack again" 

"I don't get why you hate his show" Peter said.

"Peter, we talked about this" Justin said, his voice edged with irritation.

"I know, I know, don't mention it on school property" he sighed, his eyes drifting over to the smoking girls, one of them turned around and Justin recognized her, Shaoyen, her schizophrenic outfit complimented by a long white cigarette hanging from her lips. _How often can one woman smoke in a single day?_ he asked himself as he turned to see Peter, eyes glazing over, face pinking and a faint sigh escaping his lips, _oh please God no_ , Justin traced Peter's eye line to where Shaoyen stood, leaning up against the crossbars of the school fence, a sneer on her face, smoke slipping out of her mouth, her eyes aimed forever at the ground. There was no denying what Peter was looking at, _Goddammit_.

* * *

Justin sat in his grandmother's kitchen, she was sipping coffee, he was drinking tea, his grandfather was doing...something in the living room, Justin was fairly certain it was meant to be exercise. It was late afternoon, the dying sunlight streamed in through the blinds onto the white tiled floor, when his Grandmother put her cup down and aimed her eyes at him. 

"So" she said, hands folded in her lap "What happened today?"

"I think Peter was going to ruin his life today" he replied

"Um, Okay, how...?"

"He showed up, uh how do I put this...dressed like a Green Day reject? That giving you a picture?"

"Lot of hair gel?"

"He ruined a leather jacket with it"

"Jesus"

"Yup"

"Okay, can I ask why?"

"I think he has another crush"

"ugh..." his grandmother groaned, even though she only knew Peter from attending his martial arts tournaments, these daily visits had given her a pretty clear picture of the man, and of his disastrous love life. 

"Who is it this time?" Justin's grandfather asked, entering the room in workout gear, placing a kiss on his grandmother's cheek, she smiled at him. Much like his grandmother Justin's grandfather insisted on him coming over after school, the alleged goal was to get his homework done at their place, although usually they just wound up asking him about his day, he didn't know if grandparents were supposed to be this invested, but he got the impression that retirement was boring.

"New girl" Justin replied, handing his grandfather the sugar bowl for his coffee "I walked in on her using a hookah in the boys locker room"

"Why there?" his grandmother asked. 

"Apparently, I'm the only one who ever goes in there" Justin replied. 

"Well, hopefully his parents will be able to talk him out of this..."

"That's a long shot"

"Just being hopeful"

"nah, he'll probably just do some stupid thing to get her attention, it'll backfire horribly, and then I'll get him ice cream or something."

The two elderly Long's shared a look and replied with a simple "If that's what you're okay with."

* * *

The glaring orange light of his alarm clock was the first thing that Justin saw when he heard the buzz of his phone vibrating. He slapped one arm onto his nightstand, and swiped it open.

"peter...?"

"Hey, uh Justin is your dad up?"

"It's 4AM, so No"

"Okay, can, um, jeez..."

"Peter..."

"I kind of did a bad thing" 

"how bad?"

"I told Shaoyen, oh do you know Shaoyen?"

"Yes, I know Shaoyen, what did you tell her?"

"I told her about your dad"

Justin went stiff, he felt a long knife of cold run up his spine and squeezed the phone until the buttons on the side left indentations on his palm. 

"Justin...? You still there."

"Peter, where are you?" _Because I need to know where I'm going to murder you._

"You know that jewelry store on Madison avenue?"

"That Jewelry Store? There's alike a million--"

"look, I don't know! I'm so in over my head!"

"What?"

"I might have told them about your dad and...uh, well they may have thought that I had some idea about this, HELP ME!"

"How?"

"Get me out of here!"

"Why?"

"I can't afford the friggin' _shoes_ these girls wear--"

"Well, what does my dad have to do with this?"

"I might have implied he could get us into a club...can he by the way?"

"No. And why--"

"Because Shaoyen needed to talk to a guy about something, I don't know, help a brother out!"

"By doing what?"

"Getting over here--"

"Okay Is till don't get how you went from clubbing to--"

"We were going to the--hold on!"

From the other end of the phone Justin heard the distinct sounds of someone opening a door, flushing a toilet and walking out.

"Okay, we were going to go clubbing, Shaoyen said Felicity, do you know Felicity--"

"Digressing..."

"Right, um, well, I was panicking when Shaoyen said Felicity owed her a favor-- now we're here, I'm in the bathroom, and I can't get us into a club--"

"what was your original plan?"

"I didn't know, I was winging it!"

"Okay, Peter...what store are you in?"

"Um, Let me check." there was a noise of shuffling "Graff?"

"Okay, I'm not waking up my dad, but..."

* * *

Justin had never been in a cab at 5AM, he had to admit it was a surreal experience. As was walking into the disgustingly modern showroom, from the blonde wooden cabinets to the blue velvet holding the jewelry so that the light caught it just right, all of it was so alien to Justin, what was familiar was the crowd of stylish women standing by the counter at the back, their feet tapping with impatience, Peter stood off to the side. _Don't kill him till we're on the way to his place_.

As Justin approached all of the women brightened up, _Oh Jesus_ , he thought as they rushed up to him, Jimmy Choos scratching across the carpet. There was soon a lot of smiling, a lot of coy requests about a club, and then there was a chorus of disappointed sighing when Justin informed them of the truth. 

* * *

Shaoyen was going to cut this little man's balls off, they were gonna come right off, one clean swipe with an exacto knife, a _rusty_ exacto knife, if he lived he was getting an infection, but first she needed the fucking necklace, she eyed it again, in the dim light of the back room she stared at it, the beautifully carved set of round jade beads that ended in an elegant pendant, Ming dynasty, Imperial Jade, and if this ginger fuckstick would quit _under-balling_ her, she might get her hands on it. She glared at him, his green little eyes with that ridiculous matching coat and trousers, _dressed like he's like deals blackjack and he talks to me that?_

Taking a slow breath out of her nose, she placed another offer on the table, _Take it Patty, I don't want to go Prison in America for scalping an Irish midget_

"Ye see dear" he said, his obnoxious Irish accent stinging her, if she had to take ESL to lose that shit, why the fuck did he get to keep his accent? "I've just become so very partial to it, now if this friend a yers..."

 _That Friend? who the blonde idiot Felicity? No wait, he means that radio jockey's kid_.

"Let me see if he's here" she shield at him, quietly letting him know that if he made off with the necklace there was no rock he'd be able to hide under, he smiled back. As she walked into the main showroom, past the odd stone statues that she could swear kept twitching every time she caught them out of the corner of her eye, she quietly began listing off everything that she resented about New York, chief in among these things was that kid they'd dragged along tonight, for some reason Felicity, the high queen of forestalling appointments, after months of resistance, decided that tonight was the night that shit went down, provided that the useless gawker came along, the other girls were all keyed up to go to some club, but the minute those beads were in her hand Shaoyen was going home, and she was going to FUCKING STAY THERE.

Walking into the room she saw a line of dissapointed white girls surrounding...well he looked familiar. Soon Felicity was upon her. Whispered something in her ear. And she tried not to strangle the blonde; _Once I get that necklace I'm stepping on this bitches neck on my way to hail a cab_

* * *

Before he could come up with a proper response Shaoyen grabbed him and dragged him back behind the counters. Justin Long was trying to keep up, _how is this bitch so fast in heels and a dress?_

* * *

Felicity told her to bring him back, she grabbed him, _almost done, almost--Jesus this bastard's wearing Nike shoes, how is he so slow?_

* * *

As they came to the room Justin beheld a Leprechaun, recognizable because there's a certain air of resentment made up from generations of Irish people who were called and named and mistaken for the little money-obsessed creatures, that and because he was literally sitting on boxes of gold jewelry, wearing gold chains and green Casino clothing, Leprechauns were not famous for their good taste. 

"Hello little Dragon" the Leprechaun said

"Um..." Justin started before he noted that the little thing had a gun, and more importantly that the room was filled with several large stone statues, that were moving, and had horns, and were very obviously ogre. _FUCK ME_ , Justin thought, _Peter If I live through this..._


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following the events of our last chapter Justin and Shaoyen must find their way out of peril.

Shaoyen saw the little man pull out a glock, she heard stone feet scraping against the concrete floor, and she very quietly took a step back, and felt a ring of cold metal pressed into her neck. Her spine went straight, a chill went through every nerve in her body as she heard a thumb pulling back the hammer of a gun. _Shit_ , she thought.

"Let's not make any sudden moves, K?" said Felicity, slowly turning to face her false friend, Shaoyen saw that Felicity was holding a glock against the nape of her neck, her straw-blonde hair and splotchy burlap skin stretched into an unusually focused expression, rather than her usual spaced out look. 

"Felicity" the little man said, his lilting accent driving knives into Shaoyen's ears. She turned to see his shit-eating grin, as he trained his gun on the strange, slow half-breed boy in worn out street wear; he caught her eye, she shot him a look that said _What the fuck is this shit?_ He replied with a look that said, _The fuck if I fucking know_. She tapped her heel against the ground, and the little man continued "How nice of you to join us dearie."

"And you wonder why Irish people hate you." the half-breed boy replied, the man got a look on his face like he'd been served curdled milk, as he pulled the hammer back and moved the gun to train it on Shaoyen, as she looked down the barrel of one gun with another trained to her back, for the second time that evening she wondered if she was going to die in this disgustingly tasteless jewelry shop. 

"I'd watch what I said if I was you." he said, his accent gone, replaced with the only slightly less grating New York drawl, _Oh so he knew it bugged me_ , Shaoyen thought. 

"What exactly do you think you'll accomplish?" the half-breed asked.

"I don't think ya wanna watch yer girlfriend die--" he replied, finger on the trigger, when the radio-jockey's kid burst out laughing, his body doubled over, Shaoyen would have moved up and slapped him if she wasn't otherwise indisposed. 

the little man let his gun drop somewhat "Wait, isn't she?"

"No!" The radio Jokey's kid replied "...Wait why did you think she was?"

"Well, I mean...you're...and she's..." the man behind the counter made several vague waving gestures at both of their faces, Shaoyen felt something she'd never felt in China: offended.

"Wait" she asked "did you think we were dating just because we're both Asian?"

"I mean..." he replied, his shoulders shrugged in a gesture of surrender

"I told you they weren't" Felicity muttered "several times."

"Shuttup you." the ginger gunslinger muttered, moving his gun back to the half-breed boy "Just shoot the bitch."

"gladly" was the last thing Felicity said before Shaoyen broke her leg. She hadn't meant to do so, she was wearing a pair of flimsy little Jimmy Choos, her heel might have thrown a normal person slightly off balance, but as Shaoyen drove her leg forward and back in a dramatic donkey kick she felt skin give way and heard a noise like the crack of wood. _Okay, that didn't sound right_ , she thought as she turned around to kick the gun out of Felicity's hand; she instead found a pile of expensive clothing filled with burlap, some wooden poles, and a mess of straw where the hair would be. _What the fuck?_ she thought as she grabbed the gun from some misshaped branch that might have once been a hand. 

Now the little man aimed the gun at her again. 

"Let's all just, calm down..." he said, his hands clearly trembling.

"You know what helps a girl calm down?" she said, pulling the hammer back "Jade. I'd like that necklace now."

"Are you serious?!" the half-breed asked, his eyes wide, Shaoyen squinted at him

"Hey I don't judge your priorities" she rebuked.

"Still!" he replied, eyes flying between Shaoyen and the little man.

"Okay, _why_ should I help you?" she asked .

"Because of... human compassion?" he tried.

Shaoyen's eyes drifted back to the little man who appeared to be trying not to laugh "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing, but, uh--"

"He's a leprechaun, that thing's probably sweet peas and a dead moth on a string" the boy replied. Shaoyen suddenly understood what was going on: she was crazy, she hadn't always been but these people were, and crazy was contagious and she'd caught it, that was why Felicity turned into a pile of clothes and some scarecrow stuffing, that was why this bullshit was happening, that was why these two weirdos were discussing fantasy creatures and why she was holding a gun. It would also explain why the little man was maniacally laughing.

"You're close." he replied, grabbing the beads like they were made of plastic, Shaoyen grimaced at his grip, until she saw them change, the brilliant and translucent green beads turned grey-brown, lines filled their once smooth surfaces, and suddenly a row of pill bugs were unrolling themselves from a line of dental floss, as the butterfly on the end, grew, developed garish colors, fur and became a hideous moth with a revolting seventies kitsch color pallet. Shaoyen felt her eyes twitch,she was aware that the man was laughing--no the leprechaun was laughing, she was aware that the half-breed was talking, maybe he was explaining something , maybe he was scolding her for being so ready to spend all her money on that necklace, but all she could hear was the pounding in her head. She'd come to New York from Beijing a few months ago, leaving behind friends, family, everything, all on the promise of that necklace, that necklace her grandmother had sold in the 40s to help keep the family afloat, that necklace that she'd loved, that necklace that was going to get back to her grandmother just in time for her 90th birthday; that necklace that had made her travel into this hideous city where men jerked off in plain view of women on the subway, where she was no one, where she had to wear those ridiculous costumes to keep those bitchy socialites thoroughly satisfied, in her role as "exotic." It slowly dawned on her that she had come here, had worn those outfits, had suffered in this shithouse city because of Felicity. Felicity had been full of straw, but this leprechaun had clearly known how to get her to do what he wanted. 

He had done this. 

Shaoyen pulled the trigger.

* * *

Jake woke up in a cold sweat, the tangled mess of his blankets barely muffled the sound of someone knocking at his bedroom door, something his own son had never done, even when he was small. Looking over at his alarm, he saw that it was barely 5:30AM, a half hour before his usual wake up time, so not that bad, but still annoying, he felt a stirring in the blankets and saw his wife sitting bolt upright, her blonde hair a mess highlighted by the faint glow of a streetlight, _okay I'm annoyed right now, but damn girl..._ he thought, Rose turned to him "You expecting someone?"

"No..." he started, pulling the blankets off of his body, slipping on the fuzzy red slippers and walking over to the bedroom door "Which, probably means its for me."

Pulling open the door, Jake saw a sudden dramatic strike of lightning, which highlighted the dark cloaked figure who now stood in his doorway, glowing globe in hand, and Fu Dog at his skeletal feet, 

"Jake, anybody we know?" Rose asked her voice raised,

"Not sure." Jake replied before turning back to the figure "You the old guy, or did he--"

 **"I'm new."** the scythe-bearing creature boomed.

Jake raised his eyebrows, then looked down at Fu, who gave him a half-shrug before replying "We were playing Roulette--"

"We don't have a Roulette board." Rose muttered as she walked up into the light of the orb, one hand putting her hair up into a braid, the other strapping a sword to her black hunts girl uniform. 

"Still not sure how _that_ is the one thing you kept from the other timeline" Jake said, his eyes tracing over the sword at her back.

"I wish I knew, anyways--"

 **"It wasn't that sort of Roulette."** said the man whose job title they didn't have to guess at, Jake had to admit he preferred the old guy, he gave off the impression that when it was your time, he'd take you some place you could get a beer, this one...this one seemed like he might trade out the scythe for something with better range and grip. Rose visibly paled, she coughed and continued:

"So, you, um you woke us up--"

 **"Oh, right. Sorry"** the skeleton shrugged and pulled up his orb so they could both look at it, there was a tiny dot they recognized as being in Manhattan. **"Half and hour ago this soul came into mortal peril, they recently went out, but then, back into the darkness..."**

Jake raised an eyebrow at this skeleton who despite being inside, seemed to have his cloak billowing in the wind, a cloak which Fu Dog then tugged at, there came a noise like cannons firing and the crack of thunder as the Grim reaper bent down to hear the whisper, as he slowly rose back to just above eye level he had a grin on his face,well rather, being a skeleton he had no face, and smiling was something of a default setting, but there seemed something sheepish about him.

 **"Sorry"** he began **"I was not aware that you couldn't read the script...your son Justin is within my reach. I** **f you would like to prevent his early demise I'd advise going here."**

* * *

Justin heard the bullet, and saw the red flower of blood blossom on the leprechaun's green jacket, he cried out in pain, then another bullet, and the other arm, the one holding the gun was injured; Justin watched the gun arch through the air, not bothering to see what became of the little man, with a few swift jumps managed to get a hand around the grip of the gun, he felt the sturdy, yet flexible fix of it. As he landed on the ground, he turned to see Shaoyen, her eyes bloodshot and a her finger clicking away at a now empty gun barrel, the leprechaun was still alive, but his arms, legs, and one of his ears were littered with bloody holes, he was breathing heavily, and Justin could see the fear in the drawn out lines of his face. Then Shaoyen walked towards him, and the leprechaun raised up the golems. 

Justin heard them before he saw them, huge _things_ that scraped and dragged their enormous stone feet across the concrete; five of them surrounded Shaoyen, but one of them stared him down, Justin looked into the face of the animated clay man; it wasn't well-made, most Golem looked at least somewhat human, but this one had two black marbles for eyes, it's simple rounded clay form looked more like the stay Puft Marshmallow man than a human being. But right above the black marble eyes lay the signature Hebrew letters that spelled "truth." Justin cocked the gun, aimed at the Aleph, and pulled the trigger. He expected the golem to defend itself, to maybe swat at him, or the bullet, instead it leaned into projectile's path, the bullet made contact with an unnerving splat of wet clay exploding and Justin thought that it almost looked relieved. As the great stone beat collapsed at his feet Justin's eyes went to Shaoyen, she was surrounded, her tiny frame made even smaller by the sheer size of her assailants, her finger kept pulling the trigger, her eyes wide with fear. 

_Just walk away_ , a little voice said in the back of Justin's head, _you can't help her, there's five of them, and this isn't you job_. 

And it wasn't his job, it hadn't been his job since he turned thirteen and the most magical thing to happen to him that night was a small episode of indigestion, it was never his job. But another voice in his head replied _you have at least twelve bullets._

 _She wouldn't do the same for you,_ the other voice reminded him.

 _And why should that matter?_ he thought. 

* * *

Shaoyen was going to die. At sixteen. In a shitty jewelry store. On a shitty island. Wearing clothes she hated. 

_I hope they make it quick_ , was her last thought before the first thud. 

* * *

The golem fell to the ground, and the air rushed up through Justin's hair as it crashed down to the concrete. When it hit, a wave of force surged up through Justin's legs and he nearly stumbled off of the Golem's head, his thumb stained with the clay he'd smoothed to remove the Golem's Aleph, his blood hummed with adrenaline, he raised a hand up, his finegr on the trigger and a bullet went off, buried itself in a golem's arm and Shaoyen let out a cry of 

"Do you _not_ know how to SHOOT?!"

"No" he replied, taking aim at the wounded Golem's head and firing "not really."

Shaoyen looked at him like they weren't about to get reduced to a fine paste, that is to say, with her usual disdain "If you didn't know how to shoot. Why help me?"

"Human compassion?" he replied as he took aim and shot another bullet, before he'd aimed, he jumped to where Shaoyen stood, his feet dusting across the ground in a way that only came from almost breaking his legs for years in an attempt to perfect kicks and jumps. 

"You wanna try this?" he asked as he handed Shaoyen the gun, she did a series of quick movements, opened the gun, counted the bullets, or at least what Justin assumed were bullets. She ran her eyes across the four remaining golems.

"What do I aim at?" she said with cold steel in her eyes.

"The aleph." he said.

"The _what?_ " she replied.

"That one!" Justin hurriedly whispered, one finger outstretched at a spot on the Golem's forehead's, which were soon dotted by bullet holes. Jusitn stood still as they fell back, and felt the gust of hot wind blown up by Shaoyen's work, he was aware that his jaw was open, but turned to face Shaoyen nonetheless, she turned to face him, and her eyebrows shot up, her face covered in clay dust. 

"What?" she asked.

"Where did you learn _do that?_ " 

"I was a member of the gun club in Beijing" she shrugged. 

"Why?" he asked. Shaoyen opened her mouth then clamped it shut, her eyes suddenly moved frantically across the room, then they settled on him. Justin could feel those eyes peeling back his skin and he was suddenly very conscious that he'd given her a gun. 

"Where's the leprechaun?" she asked, a hiss in her voice. 

"Here." came a voice that put Justin's blood on ice. His father walked out from behind a stack of crates, the leprechaun tied up under one arm. He didn't look happy. 


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following the events of last chapter Justin faces consequences, Peter is confused, and Shaoyen has questions.

Justin walked to school, he'd gotten up five minutes ago, which was to say that he'd been in bed, wide awake, since six AM, but he'd gotten out of bed two hours after that, and he had to admit he didn't like it. He was accustomed to early morning sparring sessions with his mother, followed by a quick breakfast of granola bars and a brisk walk to school; but that was over now, apparently. After the flight home, Justin's father had told him in a strained voice that all of that was done. No more sparring, no more early mornings, no more martial arts classes. Not if that was how he was going to use them. 

Justin didn't get why he was mad, he'd survived, Shaoyen had survived, the golems were dust, what was there to be concerned about?

Did the Grim Reaper show up and narc on him? Yes. 

Was Justin in danger at some point in the evening? Yes, obviously.

Did that warrant this bullshit? No! No it did not. Justin had one thing in this life, one thing, and now he wasn't allowed to have it. Those classes were so tied to every part of his life, he'd skipped birthdays to attend tournaments, had punched his way through bad math tests, had met his only friend by connecting his foot to their face when the teacher told him to show what he knew. 

"Hey pop-" was all Peter got out before Justin re-introduced his foot to Peter's face. Peter never was very good at fighting, despite Justin trying his best to explain the principles behind it Peter couldn't block or punch for shit, and that was evident in how he now lay flat on his back, blood coming out of his nose, eyes wide open.

"So" he said, his face to the sky "I take it you got grounded?"

"In a manner of speaking." Justin replied, as he offered a hand to his old friend. 

"I could use a tissue to wipe this up." Peter replied as he tugged on Justin's arm until he was standing upright.

"I have some" Justin said as he pulled out the boxes of products he kept in his bag.

"Why do you have all this stuff anyways?" Peter asked as he rolled tissues into his nose.

"You're the only person who ever comes over to my house." was all that Justin said.

"So?" Peter asked, blood-stained tissues crammed into his nostrils, looking very much like a sick, bloody walrus. 

"So, my parents think other kids don't like me--"

"Wait" Peter stopped, visibly trying no to laugh"Do they think you get bullied?" 

Justin shrugged, then his eyes went back to Peter he was dressed more casually than yesterday bit he still reeked of...something. 

"Peter." he started "I ask this only because I care--"

"Oh you do?" Peter jokingly replied, a smirk on his lips, a finger at the scrunched up tissues in his nose. Justin took a deep breath before carrying on.

"I say this as a friend" Peter's face fell at that "Please, tell me you aren't trying to...seduce or charm, or whatever Shaoyen."

Peter's whole face went bright red, _That's a yes_ , Justin thought, _Okay, how do I break this to him?_ Telling Peter about a Leprechaun, a changeling, a pile of dead golems and very scared rabbi who'd been forced to make them at gunpoint wasn't really an option, how to mention to Peter that he might not want to date the girl who was ready to go full Clint Eastwood and shoot her way out of a situation? Without mention the situation.

"Do..." Peter started, taking Justin out of his reverie "d-do you like her?"

Justin heard his laughter before he felt hit, the idea was just too ridiculous, maybe not so ridiculous that a boy would have a crush on a girl he barely knew, but what was ridiculous was that Peter who'd known him for years asked him a question like that. It took Peter a second to realize his blunder because he too let out a quick snort before resuming the difficult work of what the problem was. 

"Uh..." Justin started, not sure where his sentence was going to find itself "...well, she's..." _Crazy? Violent? Packing heat?_ "...not quite what you think she is."

"What I _think_ she is?" Peter asked, arms crossed, trying to look serious while still resembling a walrus. 

"Yeah..." Justin tried, "You know, you think she's this..." _Oddly pan-Asian in terms of dress,_ "...exotic..." _Cold,_ "...Mysterious..." _Admittedly, it is a little cool that's she so good with a gun,_ "...person, that you think you could, whatever it is you want to do with her--"

"Justin, Please stop." Peter said, visibly uncomfortable. "What's so bad about her? Use small words."

"She's..." _Ready to leave you for dead?_ "...a bit cold."

"Cold?" Peter replied, clearly not satisfied.

"You want me to continue?" Justin asked hoping Peter was just as uncomfortable with this conversation as he was.

"NO. No. God no." Peter stammered out, hands up in defense. 

"Great" Justin said, letting out a lungful of air he hadn't realized he was keeping in. The two walked on, not talking about much, Justin was trying to get back to earth, he understood a small number of things: the things people felt for each other was not one of them, and he rarely enjoyed putting himself in a situation where he had to guess and put words to the feelings in other people's skulls, Peter knew that better than anyone. They'd been twelve when a girl had transferred into one of their classes, Judo, maybe? It didn't matter, what mattered was that Peter and every other boy had gone crazy for her, except for Justin. It was maybe a week after his grandfather died, so his parents chalked it up to him not being in the mood to fall in love.

Although based off what those boys did, Justin had it firmly set in his mind that twelve year old boys don't fall in love, they just think they do. Justin watched as she tried to spar, the only girl in a class of boys, none of them wanted to hit her, maybe they thought they were being chivalrous or something, but Justin had risen to the occasion, she hadn't been bad at it, so he hadn't held back, she'd appreciated it, they'd started talking. The other boys started noticing. One day she wasn't there. 

He never found out where she went, but he found out why she left. Although no matter how many times Peter had explained it to him, he never fully grasped why the other boys, Peter included, had hounded her after class. No amount of explaining made the situation make sense.

As they finally came into view of the school Peter took the tissues out, tossed them in a garbage can and sighed.

"All the same" he said, his nose now open "I don't think she was into me after last night."

"I..." Justin started, realizing that there was no way to explain to Peter the main passages of nonsense that he and Shaoyen had walked through, nor could eh explain that his father had used some Men in Black magic to wipe her memory and send her off to China "...guess not, best to move on."

"Yeah." Peter said, before a Hummer pulled up to the school drop off, almost killing him in the process. Justin grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him onto the safety of the curb, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" Peter shouted, a raised middle finger directed at the driver of the car, who promptly tossed a cigarette out the window, and opened the back door. Justin and Peter could only see the passenger who emerged fro under the car. Out stepped a heel, not a sharp stiletto, but a blunt sort of heel that served to add height and break knees, then came another.

When the car sped away, Justin saw a woman wearing a very well-tailored black and red suit, a sleek braid of black hair fell straight down her back and swung like a pendulum. She didn't have a backpack, but rather in her well-cuffed hands was a slim leather briefcase that matched her outfit, although from under the cuffs of her shirt a pair of black police handcuffs could be seen. Justin knew who this person was, or rather, he had a funny feeling about who it was, and with a swing of her braid and the turn of her head, Shaoyen confirmed his suspicions. She was wearing a pair of slim sunglasses that made her face look sharper than it had any right to be. She smiled and Justin had a flashback to a time when he was seven and he'd gone to the zoo with his father, they'd left the door to the tiger cage partially open to feed them, he now knew that they'd drugged them, but at the time, he'd been certain that those sleeping tigers had been eyeballing him. He felt that way now.

"Morning boys." she said in a voice that was either chipper, or faking happiness to cover up the fact she wanted to murder them, Justin was about to try and puzzle out which one it was when Peter perked right up, dusted himself off and waved back like a maniac. Shaoyen politely waved back, before turning back around sauntering up to the school, Peter's eyes followed her ass, Justin was tempted to slap him when Peter turned to face him.

"Cold?" was all he said before rolling his eyes and chasing after her. Justin wanted to tell him a variety of things, but one thing came to mind: why was this girl acting like that? Specifically, why wasn't she back in China, and why was she dressed so different? It slowly occurred to him that his father had done some magic to alter her memories, he knew from being raised by a mother who had memories from two timelines that magic and the brain had a way of... _mixing_ in new ways. He checked his watch, it was 7AM, which meant that his father wouldn't have a break until 10AM...that was three hours to figure out what was going on.

Walking into school, he felt the rush of cheap public school AC, and then he felt an arm over his shoulder, but this one felt slimmer, a weirdly smelt like cigarettes. Turning to his left he saw Shaoyen, her face was different now, either she wasn't wearing make up or she was wearing makeup in that way where it didn't look like makeup; either way her smile seemed much more tiger-like than it had last night, the cool steel of her handcuff bracelets rubbed against his neck and her nails proved to be surprisingly sharp as the dug into his chest.

"We need to have a little talk." was all that Shaoyen said as she steered him out into the street, where another Hummer pulled up.

* * *

Peter had math first period, and despite his insistence on defying stereotypes, he actually did like that class, it was one of the few times he got to be better than other people, and one of the few times that Justin didn't need things explained to him, he loved the guy, but their conversations had a very clear point of divergence. So he always rushed up the stairs to get the good seat by the windows. Here the sunlight could hit his notebook, he could still see, and _what the fuck?_

Looking out the window Peter saw his friend Justin being lead by the shoulder, Shaoyen wearing a _very_ flattering suit had one arm draped over him, _Okay_ , he thought, _that's weird, why did he tell me not--_

Justin was shoved into a Hummer, Shaoyen gently stepped in behind him as they sped off. 

_Okay, again, what the fuck?_

* * *

Shaoyen sat on a couch, her sunglasses on, her arms outstretched on the comfortable buttercream couch in the fitting room, the half breed stood up on a platform, a flurry of seamstresses circled his body with measuring tape and various fabrics, none of which were working, much to Shaoyen's annoyance, the whole point of bringing the boy into the shop was to get him dressed up properly so she wouldn't be embarrassed to have this clandestine conversation with him. But half an hour later the designer was no closer to finding the right cut or color to suit the precise combination of skin, hair, and eye color that made the half-breed; she had spent a lot longer looking at this man T-posing in his underwear, waiting to be fitted than she ever wanted. fortunately he kept in shape so it wasn't too hard for the employees to come up with new ideas, all of which failed.

"So" he started, his arms not even shaking,despite how long they'd been up "I take it the Men In Black thing didn't take?"

Shaoyen crossed her legs as an answer, and looked up at the dull ceiling lights through her sunglasses, she wanted a cigarette, but they didn't let you smoke in these American office buildings, it kind of pissed her off, much like the rest of America kind of pissed her off; she remembered the end of the night, the little man had been carted off, an oddly dressed man had been freed from a back office, he had apparently made the stone monsters, albeit at gunpoint so...she kind of got why they let him go, then a man wearing a half-buttoned red shirt had sparked a flame in his palm, he'd run it under her chin, muttered something and then blew it into her eyes. It didn't feel like anything, she flinched out of habit, but all she experienced was the older man's morning breath, then he'd started giving her instructions, telling her to go back where she was from, forget what she'd seen, she wanted to yell, but it became very clear that this man thought he was some sort of hypnotist, so she played along.

But when she'd gotten back to her apartment she didn't book a trip back to China, she'd called her grandmother, first to say that she loved her, she always did that, but having almost died twice in an evening she felt that it was vitally important that the old woman understood that. Then she'd told her about the events of the night, she'd expected a command to come home, instead she'd been told to stay, to find the half-breed, ask some questions, and hopefully get some answers.

Unfortunately she was having a hard time getting past the initial stages of that plan.

"Are you just not gonna talk to me?" the boy asked as the seamstresses left, visibly upset, he was gathering up his sweat clothes around his crotch, Shaoyen lowered her sunglasses at him.

"Why are you doing that?" She asked "I've literally spent the past half-hour looking at you."

The man flushed and shrugged his clothes back on "They said I was a hopeless case." was all he said.

"Quitter talk." was all she said as she got up from the couch, in her heels she was a good five inches taller than him, her braid swung behind her head like a whip, the imagery put a light bounce in her step and faint sway to her hips. The effects of her changed posture was evident in his shrinking demeanor as she approached, to finish the effect she flexed her fingers, allowing her claws to flash right next to her earrings, designed to look like a bullet had hit in her earlobes. The little man visibly gulped as she approached him. 

_I missed this_ , she thought with a satisfied smile, before strutting past him, and through the curtains to the elevator doors. A few steps behind she heard the noise of two well-used nike sneakers flopping cautiously after her, she let out another contented smile as she saw his grey reflection in the elevator doors.

"Where are we going now?" He asked. 

"Where do you usually buy clothes?" She replied as the doors swung open.

* * *

Shaoyen was running her claws across her face in a way that reminded Justin way too much of the Other Mother from _Coraline_ , while they sat in the backseat of her Hummer, the AC blasting, the new leather smell getting Justin just a bit high, as the buildings outside ran past the the squares of visibility provided by the windows. Justin chanced another look at this terrifying creature he was trapped with, she was getting weirder by the minute, first she'd taken him captive to have hims tripped a fitted for a suit he apparently wasn't getting, then she got ticked when he told her he didn't buy his own clothes, and now they were on their way to some mysterious destination where he'd be able to figure things out. Whatever those things were, and why he had to figure them out was beyond him, but it was perfectly clear that this girl did not get her memory wiped.

Justin rested his forehead against the cool glass of the car window, ti was a good deal darker than it should have been, he suspected she had the vehicle bullet-proofed. He looked down at the ragged sweats and sneakers his father had gotten him years ago, which he'd never replaced because his parents were the main source of income and going shopping for clothes meant going shopping with his father. He could vividly remembered arguing with the man over a shirt, his father had wanted him to try on some sports jersey or something, he'd said no, he'd asked why, and Justin...what had he said?

Justin looked down at his outfit, it was grey, the most neutral color he could have picked, and for the first time in years Justin voiced a concern about his clothing:

"Grey isn't really my color is it?" He asked himself.

"No." Shaoyen answered "The meth-addicted gym rat look isn't exactly doing it either."

Justin shot her a look, then something caught his eyes, over her shoulder, out the window, she saw that look, turned her head and slowly turned back to face him, her face cautious.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Can you get there?" he asked.

She just smiled and said something to the driver in Mandarin, he couldn't pick it apart but he heard the word Shanghai before the car violently lurched through traffic, eliciting many curses, honks and screeching tires. 

* * *

Shaoyen awkwardly tucked her feet under a wicker chair in the cheap boutique, the smell of plastic permeated the air, the little Taoist charms dangled from hooks on the walls, part of it made her homesick to see some of the red thread bound up in such intricate knots, but part of it also made her feel out of place, in her house the charms had been made of red silk and here they were made of some sort of shiny red nylon rope. She made small talk with the nice little woman who ran the shop while the boy went in and out of the change room, until at last he emerged. 

"What do you think?" he asked, his arms extended, he still had the sneakers on but otherwise the outfit was completely differ, he'd picked up a white crew neck shirt, tossed on some cotton black pants and topped it off with a deep blue silk Qing jacket. She ahd to admit, shoes aside, it wasn't bad, then she looked at his face, and it hit her.

"That's why nothing fit." she sighed. He raised an eyebrow. "Your sad mug made all the outfits look bad."

"So?" Justin replied.

"You're smiling." she said, while he stared down at his hands he turned to the old woman and asked her for ten more of the same.

* * *

"I think we just made a local business owner very happy." Shaoyen said as they sat in the shoemaker's shop, she had to admit it was kind of nice to watch that little woman light up when Shaoyen placed her order and whipped out a debit card. 

"I think I'm gonna need a bigger closet." the boy replied, surrounded by countless plastic bags. 

"I know a guy." Shaoyen said as the last laces on his combat boot were fitted. 

* * *

"Alright" Shaoyen said as they sat down in the back of her car, Justin's ankles killing him from the stiffness of the admittedly awesome-looking boots "Now that you're dressed for it, let's talk last night."

"So, you do remember."

"Yes, your dad fucking sucks at wiping memories" she said, "So, wanna tell me what that was?"

"Why should I?"

"Because I just bought you..." she gestured to the pile a Justin's feet.

"didn't ask for that."

"You wanna take it back?"

"NO!" Justin shouted, surprised at his own response "I mean, No."

"Okay, so gimme, what the fuck was that shit?"

"I don't know, which part?"

"all of it. Who was there, what were they, how is a half-breed involved."

It took Justin a minute to process her request, partially because she'd referred to him as a "Half-breed" but partially because it was a lot to answer. 

"First of all, my name is Justin Long, you can use first the one..."

* * *

Peter didn't see Justin again for the rest of the day, he didn't see Shaoyen either. He walked through the hallways, and his mind went everywhere else, first it went in the obvious direction, Shaoyen had kidnapped Justin and he'd soon have to attend the man's funeral, or he'd be alive but eh'd need a new kidney, or worse. But then Peter's brain did that thing that all teenage boys brains did, it went to the darkest and most unlikely of places by throwing sex into the equation. His mind first stuck to the kidnapping angle, that Shaoyen was selling him to some sort of trafficking ring, then that she was pimping him out, then that maybe she was getting a few shots in. But then he walked into a wall, thinking all these insane ideas. 

_You're being silly_ , he told himself. He got to his feet and went on with day.

* * *

Jake Long was accustomed to some weird nonsense, but a Hummer rolling up to his steps, blaring Mandopop and letting out what looked like a Chinese gangster drag king followed by his son, weighed down by many a purchase, that threw him for a loop. He was about to ask what exactly was going on when the girl took off her sunglasses, and Jake felt his blood turn to ice, it was the girl from last night, he didn't recognize her. Dear God, he thought, did I mess up the process?

"Oh hello Mr. Long!" she smiled up at him, Jake was taken even further aback as she strutted up his walkway and proceeded to give a hug, she smelled like metal oil for some reason. 

" _So Sorry_ about today, but me and Justin have been meaning to go on this trip for ages." _Oh, so Justin knows her?_ He thought looking over at his son, wondering why he hadn't brought up being friends with this...intimidating Chinese girl. What didn't cross Jake's mind was that his son was wearing a radically different outfit, nor did he question what was in the bags that he'd dragged up to his room.

* * *

Peter watched the girl he wanted shake hands with his best friend's dad, and it took him a solid five minutes of telling himself _You're being silly_ , before he was able to walk home.

* * *

Justin didn't know why he liked the jackets, maybe he was nostalgic about them because he remembered his grandfather wore something like this, maybe he spent too much of his childhood watching Hong Kong action movies, but whatever the reason he actually liked how it all looked. Which worried him, because now Shaoyen knew he liked them, and she was never going to stop reminding him who bought all of this stuff for him. A buzzing from his dresser interrupted his attempt at trying to prepare a Shaoyen counterattack. Picking up the phone he saw a text from Peter.

PETER: How was your day?

 _Oh no_ , Justin thought, how to explain this without mentioning all the magical nonsense. He typed back:

J: I went shopping with Shaoyen.

P: Really? Shaoyen, the cold one?

J: She likes a charity case. 

P: Really?

J: yeah, apparently my clothes _needed_ a replacement.

P: I mean, they kinda did No offence. 

_Okay_ , Justin thought, _I think I've thrown him off the trail_.

P: But, why did she say you and her had been planning this trip for a while?

 _Oh come on_.

J: uh...she's weird. 

P: She's weird?

J:Well, Yeah, you've seen her.

P: And so have you apparently.

J:We're not dating.

P: Then why is she lying to your father about how you know each other?

J: Because, she met him last night, she wants to make a better impression.

That wasn't untrue, although Justin didn't appreciate Peter making him do all this hoop jumping.

P: Why does she need to make a better impression?

Because she's trying to find out...actually, why is she doing this?

J: No idea.

_Please, don 't--_

P: None at all? Really?

_Alright, he wants to play this game, fine._

J: Peter you're doing it again. 

P:Doing what?

J: Remember that girl who never came back to our Judo class? 

P: That's not fair.

J: But it is accurate.

P: So, you are dating her then?

J: Is that the only thing on your mind?

P: are you?

J: No.

P: Really?

J: Okay, you clearly think that we are, and nothing but that is going to satisfy you is it?

P: Well, no, you could give me another more reasonable answer as to what the fuck is going on?

J: ...

Justin tried to come up with an explanation for how he knew Shaoyen, how she had taken him on a surprise shopping trip just to pump him for information, but then he'd ask about what, and even if Justin wasn't sworn to secrecy, he doubted that Peter would buy that they'd been held captive by a leprechaun and a changeling over a fake jade necklace. 

P: I'll take that as a yes. Bye.

Peter logged off, Justin gently put the phone on the dresser and wished from the bottom of his heart that he and his mother could go up to the roof and spar.

* * *

Shaoyen walked into her closet and ran her hands over the shoulders of all her blazers.

"I missed you babies" she crooned in Mandarin, walking across the carpeted floor she opened up the jewelry cabinet, and sighed, she'd bought the whole thing a few months ago to bring the necklace back in a proper case, unfortunately it looked as though the thing may have been too heavy to transport back, now it sat there, collecting dust. She'd told her grandmother about her grand plan, to explain why she'd been in such a tacky shop, she'd reassured her that such a gift was not necessary, but then she'd said something that had surprised her:

"My granddaughter you must stay there, I am sorry, and my heart aches to see you again, but there are things in New York which you must learn, and this half-breed boy you describe, he may useful to your education on these matters." 

She said all that with an English accent because the woman had been Marathoning Downton Abbey like a motherfucker. Didn't make it any less hard to hear. But as Shaoyen looked around at the rows of clothes that she actually wanted to wear a thought occurred to her, one that hadn't been there for months: _I can work with this_.


End file.
